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Wall Street Bosses Are Calling This 'The Best Cover Letter Ever' - But Not Everyone Agrees

Well, at least for the brutally honest and hilariously self-deprecating young student, whose cover letter publicized on Business Insider, has generated a ton of positive interest amongst investment banking bosses.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the recipient of the e-mail immediately forwarded it on to colleagues, adding, “This might be the best cover letter I’ve ever received. Second and third paragraphs especially.”

Another added to the e-mail chain, “I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy gets at least a call from every bank out there.”

For your reading pleasure, I’m including the letter in full and have taken the liberty to highlight the classic bits.

From: BLOCKED

Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 1:14PM

To: BLOCKED

Subject: Summer Internship

Dear BLOCKED

My name is (BLOCKED) and I am an undergraduate finance student at (BLOCKED). I met you the summer before last at Smith & Wollensky’s in New York when I was touring the east coast with my uncle, (BLOCKED). I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk with me that night.

I am writing to inquire about a possible summer internship in your office. Iam aware it is highly unusual for undergraduates from average universities like (BLOCKED) to intern at (BLOCKED), but nevertheless I was hoping you might make an exception. I am extremely interested in investment banking and would love nothing more than to learn under your tutelage. I have no qualms about fetching coffee, shining shoes or picking up laundry, and will work for next to nothing. In all honesty, I just want to be around professionals in the industry and gain as much knowledge as I can.

I won’t waste your time inflating my credentials, throwing around exaggerated job titles, or feeding you a line of crapp (sic) about how my past experiences and skill set align perfectly for an investment banking internship. The truth is I have no unbelievably special skills or genius eccentricities, but I do have a near perfect GPA and will work hard for you. I’ve interned for Merrill Lynch in the Wealth Management Division and taken an investment banking class at (BLOCKED), for whatever that is worth.

I am currently awaiting admission results for (BLOCKED) Masters of Science in Accountancy program, which I would begin this fall if admitted. I am also planning on attending law school after my master’s program, which we spoke about in New York. I apologize for the blunt nature of my letter, but I hope you seriously consider taking me under your wing this summer. I have attached my resume for your review. Feel free to call me at (BLOCKED) or email at (BLOCKED). Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

BLOCKED.

Not everyone is impressed by this cover letter though.

Lex van Dam, former top trader at Goldman Sachs and head of hedge fund, Hampstead Capital, takes a dim view of the over-hyped reactions of the Wall Street bosses.

“They live on a different planet – and probably have never seen any of these letters before as their HR departments are trained monkeys.”

In other words, another example of a viral letter for entertainment purposes, that is much ado about nothing. And yes, I’m doing my best to ignore the ‘trained monkeys’ bit.

He goes on to explain, “The letter is well written and makes you have great sympathy for the applicant. However, it also feels as a call for charity. I would still prefer the candidate to have something special about them that they can tell me about , rather than a person who pretty much admits that he or she is pretty average. This letter is really not an exception – plenty of smart, hard working, honest people are begging for jobs that are just not available. To get ahead unfortunately, writing beautiful letters is not likely what will get you the job – doing extra ordinary things and thinking outside the box is.”

Still though – you’ve got to hand it to the applicant, who is probably the one in all of this having the last laugh: the seemingly average candidate may just have scored the internship of his or her dreams – the one that most college students would give their eyeteeth for – and it all came down to an average, albeit inspired cover letter.

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I see the titans of business are now taking advantage of kids wanting summer jobs. Unpaid internships, I learned to never be suprised at the cheap crapp the cheapo firms will pull to make a buck. These parsimonious “do-gooders” are not the folks I really want training anybody I do business with.

I’m old and expect some semblance of ethics and fiduciary responsibility. These firms and their employees have made little effort to improve their shady and mostly unethical practices. I dislike the way they do business. Shake hands and better check your ring and watch. Pat you on the back and better check your shirt.

I just think it is really chicken (you know the rest) to take advantage of someone wanting to learn and work. The traders may be good, but the level the Street has been allowed to stoop to is bad news. The kid is probably better off keeping his soul and working somewhere else.

He started with sentimentality and worked his way through with sincerity, intention and desire. This shows great drive. Then, instead of segueing into how great he is, this kid becomes really humble and appreciative. To wrap things up, he proves he is no stick in the mud by subtly mentioning his qualifications. Brilliant!

KT, same experience here. If you want to fill in key positions, don’t rely on HR. There is a big buzz going on about HR paradigm shift however in order to achieve that, it will require to start changing the hiring requirements for HR itself. I would love to believe that this is going to happen otherwise we will continue handling the hiring ourselves.

If this kid does have a near perfect GPA, then he’s smart enough to know that a letter like this is all about BS and tugging at the heart strings. I’ve used the “work hard and do anything” lines in my own letters and have gotten the same reactions (“now that’s a cover letter”). The reality is that letters like this are a dime-a-dozen and rarely get considered for a prime summer position. Having worked at BLOCKED BLOCKED and personally seen the Summer Analyst recruiting booklets filled with pages of resumes AND head shots, you better possess one of 3 defining criteria: a Tier 1 education, a well-known last name (nepotism is alive and well), or be an attractive female…that pretty much sums up the recruiting process at major institutions. But good luck to this guy!

Maseena, I appreciate this article..good food for thought. In irony to your statement however about doing extraordinary things or ‘thinking outside the box’ – I think this is just what this applicant did. The most important thing was alerting the recipient of the letter to the fact that he KNOWS the applicant – that at least would have got him reading beyond the first few lines as otherwise if the first few lines don’t impress, cover letter is more than likely tossed. In fact, his/her first few lines were totally contributed to a reminder of the ‘chat from the past’.

And then the applicant goes on to say probably exactly what goes through the minds of a lot of CEOS etc some of whom attain their positions more by literally ‘sweating the brow’ rather than with a load of high flying qualifications (please don’t misinterpret that for NO qualifications).

So the applicant has in fact probably done two extraordinary things being: 1)Secured the internship of his/her dreams through a seemingly innocent and humble letter. 2)Provided a cover letter template for thousands of job hunters because I’m pretty sure many have copied and pasted.